DOMMAGE, Fr. in a general acceptation of the term, signified in the old French service, the compensation which every captain of a troop, or company was obliged to make in consequence of any damage that their men might have done in a town, or on a march. If any disagreement occurred between the officers and the inhabitants, with respect to the indemnification, a statement of losses sustained was sworn to by the latter, before the mayor or magistrates of the place, who determined the same. But if the officers should refuse to abide by their decision, a remonstrance was drawn up and transmitted to the secretary at war, with a copy of the same to the intendant of the province. Officers have frequently been displaced or degraded on this account. Hence the term dommage is supposed to have been derived from the latin words damnum jactura, and signifies the loss or privation of a step.
DONJON. See [Dungeon].
DOSSER, in military matters, is a sort of basket, carried on the shoulders of men, used in carrying the earth from one part of a fortification to another, where it is wanted.
DOUBLING, in the military art, is the placing two or more ranks, or files into one.
DOUBLE your ranks, is for the 2d, 4th, and 6th ranks (when so drawn up) to march into the 1st, 3d, and 5th; so that of 6 ranks they are made but 3; which is not so when they double by half files, because then 3 ranks stand together, and the 3 other come up to double them; that is, the 1st, 2d, and 3d, are doubled by the 4th, 5th, and 6th, or the contrary.
Double your files, is for every other file to march into that which is next to it, on the right or left, as the word of command directs; and then the 6 ranks are doubled into 12, the men standing 12 deep; and the distance between the files is double what it was before. By this method 3 files may be doubled into 6, &c.
To Double round, in military movements, is to march by an inversion of a second line, on the extremity of a first line, thereby to outflank an enemy.
Double tenaille. See [Tenaille].
DOUILLE, Fr. a small iron socket which is at the heel of the bayonet, and receives the extreme end of the musquet, so as to be firmly united together.
Douille likewise signifies, the cavity which belongs to the round piece of iron that is fixed to the end of the ramrod, by means of two nails through two small holes, called yeux or eyes, and to which the worm is attached.